Vacuums and Dust Collectors Reviews

I got 6 of these and they are a bit flimsy but are probably going to work. One I will have to glue a little as it came apart on one corner. But for the price, it seems worth it.

This might be worth it for 1/4 the price, but not worth the $$ as priced now. Not only that, you must cut it to fit your particular saw. The back casing doesn't really cover as much as I expected. And I had to cut it myself with their template. Sorry, but I expected for this price to have something custom for my saw - or at least semi-custom.

Do yourself a favor and buy a piece of plastic and cut it yourself. You'll save around $30.

I installed the Dust Monkey on a Jet contractor saw and I am satisfied with the finished product. That said, the directions provided with the kit are ponderous, confusing and in some cases not that well thought out. I totally ignored the directions for installing the hopper on the bottom of my saw. The directions for cutting the back panel and the foam ramps are convoluted (especially considering that it's all pretty simple). The manufacturer would do well to hire a technical writer and use illustrations (a picture is worth .... ). If you are mechanically inclined you can figure out how to install the Dust Monkey on your saw but take some time to study your saw, the parts at hand and the directions (with a suspicious eye).

Once you get done with the installation you'll be pleased with the performance of the product.

Despite all the negative reviews, I pitched and bought this product for my Craftsman Professional Table Saw. First of all, ignore the lousy instructions. I separated the table saw from the base and slipped the collector plate between the saw and the base. You can use the existing bolt holes to anchor the collector plate to the base. Forget the roll of sealing tape. You will still have holes in the saw to leak air. I reversed the plate so the collector hole was in the back of the saw where most of the dust comes off the blade. I then followed the template that came with the kit and luckily, I was able to use my band saw to make a number of modifications to the template to fit my saw. That still does not seal the back of the saw. I had to cut a couple pieces of plywood to come up with an acceptable template. I ended up using a 1/4" piece of plywood which I bolted to the saw cabinet and didn't use the piece of plastic that came with the kit. In order to properly seal the back of the saw, I used pieces of heavy cardboard and bolted them to the template. I used the piece of AC foam sealer on the front of the saw to cover the space for the adjusting wheel. The plastic dust ramps needed to be modified to fit over the bolt obtructions in my saw cabinet. My table saw had a dust collector kit built into it which I removed as the Delta 50-850 dust collector creates enough vacuum to collect the saw dust. This also kept the blade from kicking up dust.
The end product I produced looks as neat and tidy as the pictures you download with this kit.
Despite the many modifications the kit needed, I am happy with the results and my shop is now dust free.

I generously gave this 2 stars.

I bought 1 of these because quick disconnect is a great idea, especially with my little portable dust collector and I wanted to see if this could work.

I put it on my hose and tried to connect it to my Jet jointer and it just fell right off! I pushed and twisted and it slid off again and again. Tried it on my table saw which has the dust port upside down which will actually help something fall off given the weight of the hose and gravity and it did fall off.

I marched down to a local retailer that sells these and they all did the same thing on their equipment.

Where these did seem to work better was connecting them to blast gates where the seemed matched to each other. They would not reasonably connect to any jointer or tablesaw outlet. I tried a half dozen different combinations.

I wondered how a company can produce something that was a great idea but wouldn't connect to the equipment it was supposed to connect too. I thought I was using the wrong pieces or missing something. The sales people told me that some machines are different and sometimes things just work by trial and errror. That was hardly a reasonable explanation for me. I thought that all the parts from a given brand come from the same mold. I tried cross brands and they were all identical. 2 brands I worked with, Jet and Delta.

So I thought that maybe I should make a pig tail to lay on the ground to plug into. That way gravity won't work against me in either situation.

Before I wanted to waste money making pig-tail 4" hoses I tried one idea. DUCT TAPE.

I hate the idea of duct taping anything other than ducts but i didn't have anything too lose at this point.
Here goes... I wrapped one revolution of silver duct tape around the dust collection outlet of my jointer. This quick disconnect went on beautifully. I was shocked! I think it does 2 things, It obviously increases the friction area to help make a tighter fit and it also is a different material and texture that seems to provide a better grip.

2 hard. slippery plastic surfaces, the dust collector outlets from the machines are slick and tapered naturally making the attaching quick disconnect fitting want to slip slide away from each other. Seems that research and developement should have researched a bit better.

I duct taped the outlet of my tablesaw as well and the fit seems fine. I believe I can enjoy quick disconnect ability now.

These don't work properly for me. After much frustration, I bought a system that has a positive locking mechanism ("FazLok" quick disconnect fittings available from Wordworker's Supply). The FazLock connectors work just fine with the PSI 4" hose.

I was a little hesitant in ordering this after reading the initial user reviews here, but went ahead and bought a couple anyway. After attaching the two quick disconnects to a 10' flexible clear hose (made by Jet), I have been using it on various woodworking machines and my dust collector. So far, I have not experienced any of the disconnect problems expressed earlier. Perhaps the problem would occur if a shorter and less flexible hose is used. But these quick disconnects are a godsend for my small garage shop with most of my woodworking machines on mobile bases.

I agree with the other reviewers. This is a poor design, obviously an after thought. I have DJ-15 that is a few years old. I have no intention of drilling holes in it. Also, the outlet is 5 inch, not 4 inch. I sent mine back, I plan to take the suggestion of the other reviewer and tape on a plastic one. Delta makes then for their newer 6 and 8 inch jointers.

Come on Delta, you can do better than this!

If you plan on buying a DJ-20, buy an inexpensive square table saw dust connector (about 1 ft. x 1 ft.), use 1 in. double sided foam tape (like the kind used to hand posters and such), and stick the connector to the side of the DJ-20. You won't be forced to drill any holes in your new expensive jointer, and you'll get a perfect seal around the connector.

My wife ordered this for me, since it was on my wishlist. She had purchased my Delta DJ-20 8" jointer from Amazon for my birthday, nice wife! Anyway, this dust connector is mounted with the included screws, but there are no holes in the side of my DJ-20 jointer. I'm going to have to drill holes in the side of my expensive jointer to use this connector. Would have preferred a simpler solution.

Not UL-Listed -- for a reason. Many shortcomings. In my opinion, a fire hazard. Appears not to be compliant with the NEC (national electrical code).

Safety issues:

(1) Power cord is 16 gauge, two sizes smaller than the 12 gauge which is the minimum permissible for a 20 amp load. Per my copy of the NEC, this cord is only permissible for up to 13 amps.

(2) Internal switching relay (gizmo which does the turning on and off of the dust collector) is rated at only 1/2 horsepower at 220 volts, not the 3 horsepower advertised for this device. Yes, the relay is also rated at 30 amps, but since the intention of this device is for motor control the 30 amp rating is irrelevant and the horespower rating must be observed.

(3) The circuit breaker with this device is rated at 25 amps, which might in some way help protect against overloading of the relay but would do little to safeguard against overheating of the cord.

(4) No ratings of any kind were marked on the device, nor in the instruction manual.

(5) There was no warning not to use the device to control a different machine, such as an air conditioner, which is far more likely to draw high current for an extended period than a dust collector. This only increases the risk of overheating and fire.

Analysis:

The device came without any warranty, which I find hardly surprising. If you're lucky, it will only self-destruct itself and leave your house alone.

When you consider that an operating dust collector is a large bag of flammable sawdust with a strong breeze blowing through it, you want to be ESPECIALLY careful not to have anything like sparks or small electrical fires nearby.

I would avoid this device, and urge both Amazon and Grizzly to stop offering it, in the interest of public safety. Moreover, I feel existing units should be recalled. With that in mind, I am forwarding a copy of this review along with photographs to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

I purchased one of these assuming from the product description that it would fit my JET dust collecter... It doesn't... this remote switch comes wired with NEMA 6-20 plug/receptacle, while the JET comes with a NEMA 6-15 plug. There is no interchanging these two without re-wiring or going to an expensive international, universal adapter... JUST KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE AND WHAT YOU WILL GET, as the data states nothing beyond it being 220A...

I expected a dust connector from Delta, designed for Delta 6" joiners would "bolt up" to a Delta 6" Joiner. That's not the case. Other than duct tape, I'm not sure how to install this item on the joiner.

I placed an order for this unit direct from Grizzly. They included a free gift in the order . I chose a set of 115 titanium bits. The bit set arrived first. The metal box that contained the bits was low quality with a interfering mechanisms and a catch that didn't line up. Despite the cheesy metal box, I've used the bits several times now and they work well.

This made me concerned about the dust collector. My fears were warranted - the box showed up and was beat up. It had some minor crushing and a couple of tears and one good sized hole. The pallet onto which it was stapled had one of the bottom members torn off leaving bare nails sticking out.

The box had an extra piece of cardboard taped to the top which appears to be because the box was so beat up that it needed augmentation. The box looked like it had be opened and taped shut several times. Notice this: Grizzly shipped a 425 lb shipment in a cardboard box stapled to a pallet and it is not bolted down. I'm not an expert in this area, but other manufacturers have sent me such large items crated, bolted down, and with steel bands holding everything in place.

Most troubling, was that inside, the collector parts were haphazardly placed in a somewhat random fashion with pieces of cardboard taped to parts to try and prevent them from damaging one another during shipping.

It didn't work, there was a substantial gouge in the side of the blower housing that was created by a nearby bolt.

Aside from all this packaging/shipping/customer service nonsense, I was impressed with how the unit appeared to be designed. The gauge of the steel was heavy, the welds look good, and the manual is excellent. The finish on the replacement intake barrel was good. The finish on the original was fair to poor (rough surface where air would be flowing).


Update: after all the hassle of replacing the intake barrel I got the machine assembled and running.

I measured the noise level with my meter (keep in mind I have a small shop of about 20x12). It's reading about 87 dbA in operation. Before purchasing, Grizzly claimed it was 83 dbA at one meter (I called and asked, this isn't published). I am satisfied with this 87 dbA at 2 meters. I think it's reasonably close to what they had told me.

The collector worked great - for a week. I then started hearing major squeaking from the motor when shutting down the machine that lasts for nearly a minute! After spending more time disassembling the motor w/ technical service on the line to trouble shoot it, we determined the bearings in the motor are bad.

I'm now an official believer in all the hoopla about buying American motors. It is such a huge pain-in-the-($#((*$# to replace a motor of this size, I'll never mess with a second rate import motor again.

I called back about getting the motor replaced and they told me they can't replace the motor w/o escalating this problem to their home office. The reason, again, being that I hadn't noted the exterior chinks in the packaging on the bill of lading at the time of delivery. In essence, it seemed to me they were saying "if you don't note package damage on the exterior of the box at the time of delivery, your warranty is void". This is despite the fact that I did take digital photos to note it's condition before opening the box and sent them to both Grizzly and Fed-Ex freight. Fed-ex sent out an inspector who seemed to agree with me that both Grizzly and Fed-Ex should take responsibility. As first observer, this looked like more of a problem on Grizzly's end than Fed-Ex.

Update: the home office called stating they would pick up the defective motor, repair it, and send me the repaired motor back out. I found this objectionable because of all the previous hassle and additional downtime and asked that they send me a new motor before requiring me to send the old one back. Now waiting for them to get back to me. This motor is 8 feet in the air and probably weighs over 100lbs. It is a major undertaking to disassemble the dust collector and send it to them. I had to hire two additional guys to install it in the first place because I don't have a fork lift.

Dust hoods and tapered connections don't go well together - I'd rather [have] a non-tapered fitting so I can get a hose clamp on it without it coming off

The steel band clamp should only be used in one type of application. That being where you are putting two SMOOTH surfaces together, like a garden hose or radiator hose. But with a DC application of a ribbed hose, the steel band clamp is NOT the preferred choice, use the wire clamp.

The steel band clamp will only strip and never be fully seated trying to compress and secure the wire rib to the smooth DC fitting. The steel banding and worm screw is not designed to do that task and provide the needed pressure to fully seat the ribbed hose. Whereas, the wire clamp will actually strattle the rib on both sides and create a perfect clamping fit.

I tried to save the twenty cents over the wire clamp, and wound up stripping the clamp thread on about 50% of the applications with the steel band clamps. I antied up and spent the extra cash and got the right product, the wire clamps for the ribbed DC hose.

... poorest quality I've ever seen. Mine was packed for return to Amazon in less than 30 minutes. The mounting holes in the legs were drilled extra large so that the threaded holes in the vertical tube could be poorly aligned. The holes in the legs are so large that washers are necessary to prevent the the machine screws from falling through. Even so, the aligned of holes is so poor, that I could not assemble the unit. I did manage to cut my hand on an unfiled weld on the top of the vertical tube.

Given the effort level necessary to manufacture this item, somebody is making a big profit on each one sold.

I have not been one for writing reviews, but this product begs for one as a service to fellow woodworkers. I am serious woodworking enthusiast with a well equipped home shop. This product is incredibly poor quality. It appears to have been chiseled by hand in some 5th world country. I would not recommend purchasing unless you are willing to accept dreadful quality and have the patience and time to drill out all of the holes fasteners are required to pass through, tap the treads the fasteners are intended to screw into, and live with poor alignment and instability. Other than that...it's still a lousy product - easily the poorest quality item in my shop, our house...Consider youself warned!